Finance

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., August 20, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters

U.S. stock futures were mixed in overnight trading Sunday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average turned in three straight weeks of losses for the first time since September 2020.
Futures on the Dow shed 75 points. S&P 500 futures traded below the flatline while Nasdaq 100 futures hovered mildly higher.

Stocks have struggled in September, a seasonally weak month for the market.
The Dow closed Friday’s regular session 166.44 points, or 0.5%, lower at 34,584.88. The S&P 500 shed 0.9% to 4,432.99 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9% to close at 15,043.97.
The S&P 500 saw its biggest trading volume Friday since July 19, more than doubling its 30-day average volume. Friday coincided with the expiration of stock options, index options, stock futures and index futures — a quarterly event known as “quadruple witching.”
All three major averages are negative for the month, but still sit less than 3% below their all-time highs.
The Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated September meeting is set to occur this week. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will hold a press conference Wednesday at the conclusion of the two-day meeting. Investors are awaiting insights about the Fed’s tapering of its easy monetary policy.

Powell has said the so-called tapering could occur this year, but investors are waiting for more specifics, particularly after mixed economic data released since Powell’s last comments.
“Factors to build a ‘wall of worry’ are present (i.e., China, supply chain issues, Fed policy, debt ceiling, infrastructure/tax bill), though markets are not too disturbed for now. Normal pullbacks and volatility are to be expected, and we would use these periods as opportunities,” Raymond James Chief Investment Officer Larry Adam said in a note.
Investors also await a number of major quarterly earnings reports this week with Adobe, FedEx, Darden Restaurants, Nike and Costco posting financial results.

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The Federal Reserve has a big meeting on tap next week, one that will be held under the cloud of an ethical dilemma.
Reports in recent days indicate that Fed officials have been trading stocks and bonds that could be influenced at least indirectly by their decisions.
The Fed lives on its credibility, and some of the recent problems could dent that.

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021.
Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Federal Reserve has a big meeting on tap next week, one that will be held under the cloud of an ethical dilemma and a policymaking committee that finds itself with fairly pronounced divisions about the path ahead.
Markets largely expect the Fed to follow the two-day session with no major decisions, but rather just the first but significant nods that the historically easy money pandemic-era accommodation is coming to an end soon if slowly.

“Tapering” will be the word of the day when the post-meeting statement is issued Wednesday, at which time individual officials also will release their forecasts on the future arc of interest rates as well as economic growth and inflation.
All of that will be set against a backdrop of controversy: News reports in recent days indicate that Fed officials have been trading stocks and bonds that could be influenced at least indirectly by their policy decisions.
At the same time, speeches over the past several weeks indicate a schism between those who say the time is now to start tightening policy and those who’d rather wait.

For the normally staid Fed, the present circumstances are unusual and could yield some interesting dynamics.
“I think it’s embarrassing for the Fed. It had such a squeaky-clean reputation,” Greg Valliere, chief U.S. policy strategist at AGF Investments, said of the trading controversy that largely involved regional Presidents Robert Kaplan of Dallas and Eric Rosengren of Boston. “But I don’t think it’s going to change policy in any regard at all. I think it will be rearview mirror pretty soon, assuming there’s no other shoe to drop.”

Valliere did note the issue will help fuel Fed critics such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who had been a vocal detractor of the Fed’s looser regulatory approach in the years since the 2008-09 financial crisis.

A matter of credibility

More than that, though, the Fed lives on its credibility, and some of the recent problems could dent that.
There’s the market credibility issue – Wall Street and investors need to believe that the Fed is at least mostly unified in its monetary policy approach to setting interest rates and associated moves that have market impact. Then there’s the public credibility – at a time when faith in Washington’s institutions has plunged, ethical missteps only add to that and can have repercussions, especially at such a delicate time.
“The ethics here look bad. They should have known better,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis and former chief economist of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration. “Once you lose that moral authority, it’s a problem.”
Rosengren, Kaplan and any other Fed officials who traded stocks didn’t violate laws or policies. In fact, that’s become part of the criticism leveled in some circles – that following the financial crisis the Fed didn’t do a housecleaning when it came to internal rules to make sure it avoided the kinds of conflicts that came to light during the crisis.
“Keep in mind, they already have [trading] rules they imposed on banks, for example, and yet the Fed’s governors don’t live by those same rules,” said Christopher Whalen, a Fed veteran and now chairman of Whalen Global Advisors. “After Dodd-Frank [the post-crisis banking reforms], every agency in Washington tightened up little conflicts like insider trading. And yet the Fed is somehow exempt from those rules? They look ridiculous.”
For its part, the Fed has noted that it is following rules for other government agencies and has supplemental rules as well.

Jerome Powell, nominee to be chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, shakes hands with US Senator Elizabeth Warren (R), Democrat of Massachusetts, prior to testifying during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Still, a spokesman for the central bank said Thursday that Chairman Jerome Powell has directed Fed staff “to take a fresh and comprehensive look at the ethics rules around permissible financial holdings and activities by senior Fed officials.”
“This review will assist in identifying ways to further tighten those rules and standards. The Board will make changes, as appropriate, and any changes will be added to the Reserve Bank Code of Conduct,” the official added.
The controversy comes against a delicate backdrop for the Fed.
The central bank is preparing to take its first steps to normalize policy again, after slashing benchmark interest rates to zero and doubling the size of its balance sheet through more than $4 trillion in bond purchases.
Fed officials are divided on policy: By Goldman Sachs’ count, six officials who have spoken publicly on the issue of tapering asset purchases are for it and six are against. On inflation, while Powell has said he expects price pressures to recede fairly soon, at least six Fed officials, including Governor Christopher Waller, have said they anticipate inflation to remain above the central bank’s 2% target beyond 2021.
One more complication thrown into the mix is that Powell’s term is set to expire in February, and President Joe Biden is expected to announce soon his preferred choice to lead the bank ahead. Most on Wall Street expect Powell to be nominated again, but there’s growing sentiment that Biden will move out Randal Quarles as vice chairman in charge of bank supervision and replace him with Governor Lael Brainard, who likely would use a heavier hand in bank regulation.
Amid all those pressures, Powell will have to make sure the Fed gets policy right and is able to clear away some of the contentiousness of late.
“It’s not a fait accompli that Jerome Powell is reappointed,” said LaVorgna, the Natixis economist. “The administration is understandably going to wait and see how the Fed handles the taper and what the markets do. That could be the determining factor in whether he’s reappointed.”

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The House Ways and Means Committee passed a tax package on Wednesday that would require withdrawals from retirement accounts worth more than $10 million.
Peter Thiel, billionaire co-founder of PayPal, would likely need to withdraw all but $20 million of his Roth IRA, reportedly valued at $5 billion.
Thiel, 53, would owe income tax on any investment earnings he withdraws due to current retirement distribution rules.

Billionaire Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and chairman of Palantir Technologies, during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Nov. 18, 2019.
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Billionaire Peter Thiel and others with huge retirement account balances are in lawmakers’ crosshairs.
House Democrats unveiled a tax package on Monday that would force distributions from one’s nest egg if the value of individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans and other retirement stashes exceed $10 million.

Thiel, a PayPal co-founder, owns a Roth IRA that was worth $5 billion in 2019, according to a ProPublica report published in June, based on tax return data. The IRA was worth less than $2,000 two decades earlier.

The House legislation would require Thiel to withdraw all but $20 million, nearly emptying the account, according to tax experts.
Roth IRAs are a type of after-tax account. Contributions are taxed upfront; investment earnings are tax-free, unless the owner withdraws funds after 59½ years old.
Based on the bill’s current language, Thiel, 53, would owe income tax on his investment growth — meaning he’d likely owe tax on nearly $5 billion, according to Ed Slott, an accountant and IRA expert based in Rockville Centre, New York.
(This example assumes the IRA is his only retirement account and that the account is still worth $5 billion.)

“The whole thing was written in response to Peter Thiel,” Slott said of the House legislation. “Because he fits the profile: He’s in his 50s and has $5 billion.”
Thiel didn’t immediately return a request for comment from CNBC.
His situation illustrates the tax impact new distribution rules may have on Americans with so-called mega IRAs.
More from Personal Finance:Democratic plan would close tax break on exchange-traded fundsTerms of expanded child tax credit could still be up for negotiationNew York City is funding college plans for students
The House proposal is one of several changes to the tax code Democrats are aiming at the wealthy to raise money for up to $3.5 trillion of spending on education, paid leave, child care, health care and climate measures. The House Ways and Means Committee passed the tax package Wednesday, setting it up for a vote in the full chamber.
“IRAs were designed to provide retirement security to middle-class families, not allow the super wealthy to avoid paying taxes,” according to Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

New distribution rules

Current law requires withdrawals from certain retirement accounts based on age. A 2019 law also created distribution rules for inherited IRAs and 401(k) plans.
The House legislation would add to those rules, asking wealthy savers of all ages to withdraw a large share of aggregate retirement balances annually. They’d potentially owe income tax on the funds.
The formula is complex, based on factors like account size and type of account (pretax or Roth). Here’s the general premise: accountholders must withdraw 50% of accounts valued at more than $10 million. Larger accounts must also draw down 100% of Roth account size over $20 million.

Here are examples of the amounts at stake: An individual with a $50 million Roth account must withdraw $30 million next year; an individual with a $15 million pretax account would pull $2.5 million.
“This is a monumental change for anyone who has more than, say, $6 million or $7 million in their IRAs,” according to Robert Keebler, an accountant and estate planner based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “And it will immediately impact people with more than $10 million.”
However, single taxpayers with less than $400,000 of income and married couples with less than $450,000 are exempt from the rules.
“If [Thiel] is really clever and can get his [adjusted gross income] below the threshold he will avoid this new rule altogether,” Keebler said.

Not just Peter Thiel

The number of taxpayers with IRAs over $5 million tripled to roughly 28,600 from 2011 to 2019, according to a recent analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the congressional tax scorekeeper.
They account for less than one-tenth of 1% of the roughly 70 million taxpayers with a traditional (pretax) or Roth IRA, according to IRS statistics.
However, the super-rich aren’t necessarily the only ones with multimillion-dollar accounts — especially after the bull market for stocks coming out of the Great Recession.
“It’s not just people like Peter Thiel,” according to Beth Shapiro Kaufman, an estate planner at the law firm Caplin & Drysdale. “I see professionals who have amounts that could be into the two digits of millions, because the period of their working life was a phenomenal period in the stock market.”
However, most people should be able to live comfortably on $10 million in retirement savings, she added.

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Moderna’s sign is seen outside of their headquarters in Cambridge, MA on March 11, 2021.
Boston Globe | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Thermo Fisher Scientific — The maker of scientific equipment saw shares jump more than 6% after it said earnings and revenue for 2022 will be much higher than analysts currently expect as demand booms amid the pandemic.

Moderna — The vaccine maker’s shares lost nearly 2.5% as the Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee prepares to enter discussions on Friday afternoon about a Covid-19 booster shot that would be offered to the general public and vote on the Pfizer-BioNTech shot.
Invesco — Shares of the asset manager jumped 5% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is in talks to merge with State Street’s asset management unit. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said a deal is not imminent and might not happen at all.
U.S. Steel — U.S. Steel fell 8% after it revealed plans to build a new steel mill whose construction would start in 2022 with plans to have it operating in 2024. Demand for steel has been high, with prices about quadrupling since summer 2020. The shares are up 40% this year.
Zumiez — Shares of Zumiez rallied more than 8% after the skateboard apparel retailer announced a share repurchase of up to $150 million.
Diamondback Energy — Energy producer Diamondback saw shares rise more than 3% after it announced a $2 billion stock buyback late Thursday as part of its accelerated plan to return 50% of free cash flow to shareholders in the fourth quarter.

Cree — Cree fell nearly 3% after Bank of America downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral, saying it sees “limited” upside potential in the semis manufacturer. Specifically, it cited rising capital intensity and said competition offsets long-term electric vehicles benefits.
FedEx — Shares of the delivery company slipped more than 1% on Friday after UBS slashed its earnings estimates for FedEx. The investment firm said rising wages and difficulty hiring would hurt FedEx’s bottom line when the company reports its fiscal first-quarter results next week.
Freeport-McMoRan — The mining company fell more than 3.5%, extending its losses from Thursday driven by a pullback in the price of metals, including silver and copper. Freeport’s president also spoke about the development of mining projects at a virtual conference hosted by Morgan Stanley this week.
 — CNBC’s Yun Li, Hannah Miao and Jesse Pound contributed reporting

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has ordered a review of ethics rules for the central bank after an outcry over officials owning individual securities.
CNBC found Powell owned municipal bonds of the same type bought by the Fed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Two regional Fed presidents likewise owned assets of the same type the Fed was buying as the coronavirus threatened the U.S. economy’s health.
The central bank’s code of conduct says officials “should be careful to avoid any dealings or other conduct that might convey even an appearance of conflict between their personal interests, the interests of the system, and the public interest.”

Amid an outcry about Federal Reserve officials owning and trading individual securities, an in-depth look by CNBC at officials’ financial disclosures found three who last year held assets of the same type the Fed itself was buying, including Chairman Jerome Powell.
None of these holdings or transactions appeared to violate the Fed’s code of conduct. But they raise further questions about the Fed’s conflict of interest policies and the oversight of central bank officials.

Powell held between $1.25 million and $2.5 million of municipal bonds in family trusts over which he is said to have no control. They were just a small portion of his total reported assets. While the bonds were purchased before 2019, they were held while the Fed last year bought more than $5 billion in munis, including one from the state of Illinois purchased by his family trust in 2016.
Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren held between $151,000 and $800,000 worth of real estate investment trusts that owned mortgage-backed securities. He made as many as 37 separate trades in the four REITS while the Fed purchased almost $700 billion in MBS.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin held $1.35 million to $3 million in individual corporate bonds purchased before 2020. They include bonds of Pepsi, Home Depot and Eli Lilly. The Fed last year opened a corporate bond-buying facility and purchased $46.5 billion of corporate bonds.

Among those questions: Should the Fed have banned officials from holding, buying and selling the same assets the Fed itself was buying last year when it dramatically widened the types of assets it would purchase in response to the pandemic?
The Fed’s own code of conduct says officials “should be careful to avoid any dealings or other conduct that might convey even an appearance of conflict between their personal interests, the interests of the system, and the public interest.”
In response to CNBC questions asked in the process of our research, a Fed spokesperson released a statement Thursday saying Powell ordered a review last week of the Fed’s ethics rules surrounding “permissible financial holdings and activities by senior Fed officials.”
A Fed spokesperson told CNBC that Powell had no say over the central bank’s individual municipal bond purchases and no say over the investments in his family’s trusts. A Fed ethics officer determined that the holdings did not violate government rules.
Barkin declined to comment but he did not appear to have any say over the individual corporate bonds purchased by the Fed.

Rosengren has announced he would sell his individual positions and stop trading while he is president. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, who actively traded millions of dollars of individual stocks, also said he would no longer trade and would sell his individual positions. But he said his trade did not violate Fed ethics rules.
A spokesman for Rosengren told CNBC that he “made sure his personal saving and investment transactions complied with what was permissible under Fed ethics rules.”
But Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets, said if some of these Fed actions are not against the rules, the rules need to change.
“To think that such trading is acceptable because it is supposedly allowed by Fed’s current policies only highlights that the Fed’s policies are woefully deficient,” Kelleher told CNBC.
While trading by Rosengren and Kaplan was not conducted during the so-called blackout period, when Fed officials are not allowed to talk publicly about monetary policy or trade, Kelleher said during a crisis like last year, “the whole year should be considered a blackout period” because Fed officials are constantly talking and crafting policy in response to fast-moving events.
Correction: The Fed itself bought $5 billion to $6 billion in municipal securities last year. The previous figure used in the story incorrectly included money that came from the Treasury used to buffer against losses.

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On Sept. 14, a trader bought 8,000 options that would pay off if the price of GreenSky rose above $10, according to the market participants.
After news of the Goldman deal hit the next day, the value of the contracts skyrocketed. The trader made an astounding 3,900% gain in a single day, the market sources say.
Overall wagers in soon-to-be-profitable $10 call options surged over the last two weeks, indicating that it’s possible multiple traders had knowledge of the deal.

The day before Goldman Sachs announced its $2.2 billion purchase of fintech lender GreenSky, someone placed options trades that immediately soared in value, moves that market participants say indicates advance knowledge of the deal.
On Sept. 14, the trader bought 8,000 options that would only pay off if the price of GreenSky rose above $10, according to the market participants. The options were out of the money — meaning that GreenSky was trading well below the strike price — and cost as little as a nickel per share.

After news of the deal hit, the value of the contracts, each allowing for the purchase of 100 shares of GreenSky, skyrocketed. The trader made an astounding 3,900% gain in a single day on contracts expiring Sept. 17, the market sources say. That means a $40,000 bet would have turned into about $1.6 million.
Acquisitions are complicated transactions involving teams of bankers, lawyers and other specialists with access to market-moving information. With that many sets of eyes on a deal, information often leaks. As many as one-quarter of all public company deals result in some form of insider trading, often involving out-of-the-money calls in the options market, according to a 2014 academic study.
Although there have been insider-trading cases ensnaring high-profile perpetrators, instances in which people used material, nonpublic information in the markets, most times the activity goes unpunished, according to the 2014 study by professors at the Stern School of Business at New York University and McGill University.
Goldman Sachs and GreenSky declined to comment for this article. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.
Goldman was its own financial advisor and used Sullivan & Cromwell as legal counsel. JPMorgan Chase and FT Partners advised GreenSky, which also used law firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders.

GreenSky’s board also retained its own bankers and lawyers at Piper Sandler and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The banks and law firms declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond to messages.

‘Nobody’s that lucky’

The Sept. 14 trades weren’t the only unusually prescient bets made ahead of the Goldman deal.
Options activity for GreenSky is typically muted, with fewer than 1,000 calls making up the average daily volume. Wagers in soon-to-be-profitable $10 call options surged over the last two weeks, however, indicating that it’s possible multiple traders had knowledge of the deal.
Volumes went from 153 calls on Sept. 7 to 7,175 calls by Sept. 9, according to Jon Najarian, a veteran trader and CNBC contributor. By Sept. 13, two days before the announcement, call volumes hit 12,755. The contracts were mostly sold for a profit on Sept. 15, he said.
“When we see unusual activity like that, we tend to think that somebody had tomorrow’s newspaper today,” Najarian said. “Nobody’s that lucky. Whoever bought those calls will probably face regulators.”
The trades were so brazen — with some of the calls set to expire in just days — that whoever made them must be inexperienced, according to a former Wall Street executive with more than four decades of markets knowledge. There are ways to structure the bets that would make them less obvious to regulators, he said.
“This looks like a 22-year-old kid who didn’t know what they were doing,” he said. “But it’s a no-brainer, they had inside information.”
Financial columnist Matt Levine, a former Goldman banker who has written extensively about insider trading, has a few guidelines when it comes to the prohibited activity. His first rule (“Don’t do it”) is followed by a second:
“If you have inside information about an upcoming merger, don’t buy short-dated out-of-the-money call options on the target,” Levine wrote in a 2014 column. “The SEC will get you!”
— CNBC’s Bob Pisani contributed to this report.

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JPMorgan will launch its hotly anticipated U.K. digital bank next week, the firm confirmed to CNBC.
The move will see JPMorgan take on Britain’s established banks as well as challengers like Monzo.
It marks the first international expansion of JPMorgan’s consumer bank brand in its 222-year history.

Signage outside a Chase bank branch in San Francisco, California, on Monday, July 12, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON — JPMorgan Chase is gearing up to debut its hotly anticipated digital bank in the U.K. next week.
The move will see the U.S. banking giant take on major British lenders including HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest, as well as start-ups like Monzo and Starling.

JPMorgan will also step up its rivalry with Goldman Sachs, which launched its Marcus digital bank product in the U.K. in 2018.
New York-based JPMorgan first unveiled plans to launch its Chase brand in the U.K. earlier this year. Rather than establishing physical branches, JPMorgan will only offer its services through a mobile app.
It marks the first international expansion of JPMorgan’s consumer bank brand in its 222-year history.
The news was initially reported by the Financial Times and later confirmed by CNBC.
Sanoke Viswanathan, CEO of JPMorgan’s international consumer division, said the bank’s U.K. expansion was a “very big strategic commitment.”

“We will spend hundreds of millions before we get to break-even and get to a place where this is a sustainable business, and we’re not in a rush,” he told the FT.
Chase will initially offer checking accounts along with a rewards program. It also plans personal loans, investments and mortgages further down the line.
The U.K. is home to an increasingly crowded retail banking market. Fintech-friendly regulations have enabled challengers like Monzo, Revolut and Starling — which offer checking accounts and other services via smartphone — to flourish and become billion-dollar companies.
These digital banks have gained millions of customers between them, while some have even tried their luck at entering the U.S. market. Revolut, which now has more than 15 million customers, was last valued at $33 billion, making it the U.K.’s most valuable tech start-up.
JPMorgan’s arrival in the U.K. will place further pressure on the country’s traditional lenders. State-backed NatWest notoriously tried and failed to take on fintech challengers with a competing digital bank called Bó.
Under CEO Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan has sought to combat the threat of fintech stars like PayPal and Square through a number of acquisitions.
As part of its effort to expand in the U.K., the bank agreed to acquire online wealth manager Nutmeg in June. Later that month, it announced a deal to buy OpenInvest, an ethically minded investment platform based in San Francisco.
Earlier this month, JPMorgan said it plans to purchase a majority stake in Volkswagen’s online payments unit.

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Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
Manchester United (MANU) – The soccer team operator reported a quarterly loss that was 5.9% narower than what it lost a year ago amid a 15.9% increase in revenue. Manchester United is not providing full-year revenue or earnings guidance for fiscal 2022 due to uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Invesco (IVZ) – The investment management firm is in talks to merge with State Street’s (STT) asset management unit, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Those sources said a deal is not imminent and might not happen at all. Invesco shares surged 6.5% in the premarket, while State Street edged up 0.6%.
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) – The video game maker’s stocks fell 1.3% in premarket action after BMO Capital downgraded the stock to “market perform” from “outperform.” BMO’s earnings estimates for Take-Two had been on the high end of Street forecasts, but it said it is now less confident following a series of video game release delays.
Coupang (CPNG) – Softbank’s Vision Fund sold 57 million shares of the South Korean online retailer for about $1.69 billion, according to an SEC filing.
Accolade (ACCD) – The provider of workplace benefits management solutions rose 2% in the premarket after Baird upgraded the stock to “outperform” from “neutral.” Baird cited a track record of strong execution and its increasing confidence following recent conversations with management.
Unum (UNM) – Unum is launching a new digital verification tool designed to help companies manage vaccine mandates. The insurer’s product allows workers to report vaccination status and upload documentation as well as helping companies manage exemptions.

Eli Lilly (LLY) – The drugmaker won FDA approval for expansion of the emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 treatment. The treatment can now be used in patients who could have a high risk of infection after being exposed to someone with Covid.
General Motors (GM) – GM plans to extend downtime at seven North American factories as the worldwide semiconductor shortage continues to crimp production.
U.S. Steel (X) – U.S. Steel is planning to build a new U.S. steel mill, with construction beginning next year and production planned to kick off in 2024. The move comes amid booming demand for steel as well as prices that have roughly quadrupled since the summer of 2020. Shares fell 2.1% in the premarket.
Zumiez (ZUMZ) – Zumiez shares rose 1% in premarket trading after the streetwear and sports apparel company announced a $150 million stock buyback program.
Diamondback Energy (FANG) – The energy producer announced an accelerated capital return plan and approved a $2 billion stock buyback. Diamondback’s stock rallied 5.2% in premarket trading.

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